tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33770916.post8601552666815824272..comments2024-01-06T09:14:53.340-08:00Comments on Dashiell: Bad faithUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33770916.post-40585363657672051922007-10-25T10:29:00.000-07:002007-10-25T10:29:00.000-07:00It might interest you to know this post is at 170 ...It might interest you to know this post is at 170 views and counting today.<BR/><BR/>Great post, and insight.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33770916.post-2114082189232284692007-10-22T09:03:00.000-07:002007-10-22T09:03:00.000-07:00@ bonnie: from reading the article I have no reaso...@ bonnie: from reading the article I have no reason to doubt Capt. Brown's change of heart was genuine - do you have evidence to the contrary? I can easily imagine a place like Iraq making soldiers realise exactly what their chosen profession involves. "Playing" soldier at home, in boot camp, involves few moral questions, actually employing your new skills against actual human beings is a different thing however.<BR/><BR/>I also suspect (without having hard proof) most of the rank and file religious fundamentalists' beliefs are genuinely held and aren't easily changed in a utilitarian way. People may join a faith/denomination/cult wholesale because it suits them personally but I don't think they would (and are supposed to!) alter individual articles of faith on a whim.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33770916.post-49109943217522987282007-10-21T13:31:00.000-07:002007-10-21T13:31:00.000-07:00I can never understand how some people of faith ca...I can never understand how some people of faith can adjust their faith to fit what suits them personally, but they always seem to manage it.<BR/><BR/>Did you see this article about the U.S. soldier who was granted CO status?<BR/><BR/>http://tinyurl.com/28kxc7<BR/><BR/>That's gotta make some people's heads explode. However, please note that they made him serve his full time in Iraq before they would grant him CO status.<BR/><BR/>Even if I don't always comment, I am always reading your blog, Dash. Delish!<BR/><BR/>BonnieBonniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05151315781808837623noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33770916.post-39295859857070373502007-10-21T01:59:00.000-07:002007-10-21T01:59:00.000-07:00Brownback's identification of communism with athei...Brownback's identification of communism with atheism is of course typical for the religious right. When you get all your values from one book then atheism must certainly be a deadly threat to your very foundations. What they deliberately ignore is the reason for communism's repudiation of religion. Marx realised that organised religion had at all times been misused as instrument of oppression, as a tool of worldly power. (He was mistaken though in ignoring that spirituality is much more than that.)<BR/>There is hardly anyone whom Marx' critique fits better than religious fundamentalists, as a tool of worldly power is exactly what religion is to them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33770916.post-45049106857453860082007-10-20T20:17:00.000-07:002007-10-20T20:17:00.000-07:00Well, I think the two cases are quite different. T...Well, I think the two cases are quite different. There was a deliberate effort to exterminate native religion. That's not the case with the religious right. They have thousands of churches, radio stations etc., and yet they're insecure. The Indians were vulnerable to force, like all humans are. But that doesn't constitute a critique of their "faith."Chris Dashiellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14502735579422890467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33770916.post-84950969338439897962007-10-20T19:27:00.000-07:002007-10-20T19:27:00.000-07:00>An all-too obvious aspect of all this—which is, h...>An all-too obvious aspect of all this—which is, however, seldom pointed out—is that Christian fundamentalists and their enablers must have incredibly weak faith, seeing as how they are in a practically constant state of anxiety about threats to it from liberals, feminists, gays, atheists, Muslims, or what have you.<BR/><BR/>I absolutely agree. There's something brittle and hysterical about right wing fundamentalists, as if relaxing and stopping fearing would deflate their self-balloons.<BR/><BR/>Somewhat off-topic, being of the boomer / hippie generation, I've known people, white people, who ascribe to their own version of Native American spirituality, going on vision quests, getting pierced at sun dances, etc.. It occured to me that Native American spirituality couldn't have been all that robust, since it appears to have collapsed utterly in the face of the white man's guns, liquor, and religion. Especially liquor.<BR/><BR/>KarlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com